In the field of Bible translation, modern translations of the Bible into Arabic have not received the scholarly attention it deserves. The attention that Pre-modern translations of of the Bible into Arabic and its various language varieties that have been produced by Arabic speaking Jews and Christians can be seen in the high number of scholarly contributions. It is undeniable that these translations had a huge impact on medieval Arab-Islamic culture, its lingual, literary and religious landscapes. Modern translations of the Bible into standard Arabic and/or in its vernacular varieties since 1865 have introduced new religious Christian denominations into the Arab world. In these translations, the issue of the relationship between culture and religion is seen to be inscribed within the very conception of translation itself.
This paper shall look into Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Arabic Bible Translation New World translation of the Holy Scriptures, and address how an Originally-American Christian group re-constructs the relationship of religion –universality of one truth and its embodiment in one community of faith – and culture; and specifically, Arabic culture. Culture, in its manifold forms, in Jehovah’s witnesses’ world view is paradoxically conceived as an expression God’s gift to mankind, and a demonic site of truth confusing.
This paper shall argue that translating the Bible according to Jehovah’s witnesses consists of de-culturising the biblical message in order to restore its would-be-original meaning that is consonant with Jehovah’s ultimate design with mankind.
Before producing their own Arabic translation of the Bible New World translation of the Holy Scriptures – the translation of the New Testament appeared in 1998 and of the complete Bible in 2004 – Jehovah’s Witnesses used to use the other existing Bible translations in Arabic. Producing a Bible translation of their own means a re-introduction and popularisation of the Divine name Jehovah/Jahveh as a universal Deity in Arabic Biblical tradition, which in the history of Arabic Bible translation has been identified with the Jewish tradition.